Rosberg: Hamilton crash does not change focus

Nico Rosberg insists he will not be approaching the German Grand Prix any differently from pole position after Lewis Hamilton's Q1 spin saw him qualify 15th at Hockenheim.

It looked like it would be a straight shoot-out between the two Mercedes drivers for pole but, while top of the timesheets, an apparent brake failure saw Hamilton spin into the tyre barrier at Turn 9. Rosberg pipped Valtteri Bottas to pole by two tenths in Q3 but he says he cannot afford to dwell on the fortunes of his team-mate with the Williams pair second and third behind him.

"I still expect [Lewis] to come through the field quickly," Rosberg said. "I don't know, it's difficult to predict. I will focus on my own race and I need to push anyway from the front and try to pull the gap, see where I am on the strategy."

When asked if Hamilton's incident changed his approach to the rest of qualifiying, Rosberg said: "No it doesn't change anything, I was still flat out all the way through."

The Mercedes drivers both use different brakes due to driver preference, but Rosberg said his own Carbon Industrie brakes during qualifying were causing him some problems.

"In Q1 I had problems with my brakes. We changed them at the start of qualifying and it didn't feel good for the whole of qualifying, it didn't feel good. I sort of found my way then but it was especially difficult in Q1. We run different brakes between us, so the problem he had didn't apply to my car as a result."